Make a Balloon Flower

Make a Balloon Flower: Introduction

Wayne Kawamoto

The flower balloon animal is a cute, crowd-pleasing balloon animal sculpture. Here, you'll learn how to make the basic flower, the stem, and, if you wish, the leaves for a fun balloon flower that kids and grown-ups will love.

Materials:

Two 260 balloons. You can use any color balloon for the petals and will probably want to use a green balloon for the stem and leaves.

Inflate the Balloon

Tie the Balloon

Take the knotted end of the balloon and tie it to the tip of the balloon. You can simply use a traditional square knot. Doing this, you've created a loop out of the balloon.

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Begin the Petals

Wayne Kawamoto

Bring the knot of the ring towards the center of the balloon and twist the knot into it.

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Two Loops

You've created two loops; it will resemble a bow tie. Now locate the center of the balloon where the knotted end resides; we'll call that point "the axis."

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Twisting the Axis

Wayne Kawamoto

Bring the center of one of the loops towards the knotted axis. Twist this center into the axis.

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Create Another Petal

Wayne Kawamoto

You will now have three loops: one large loop and two smaller loops. The flower is beginning to take shape.

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Twisting the Axis Again

Wayne Kawamoto

Repeat with the larger loop. Bring the center of the larger loop towards the knotted axis and twist it into the axis. If you want a fuller flower, repeat this process

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Finish Four Petals

Wayne Kawamoto

You now have a balloon animal with four loops. Straighten these out to form the petals of a flower. Next, you can either add petals or attach the stem, which is explained in Step 11.

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Make Five Petals

You can make another petal, which will make your flower look more realistic, by repeating the process you just followed with slight additions. In brief, for a five-petal flower:

After you inflate the balloon, Make a small fold twist using a balloon segment that is about four inches long.

To make a second petal, Make a second fold twist. Try and make it the same size as the first fold twist.

To make the third, fourth, and fifth petals, Repeat the process and make third, fourth and fifth fold twists. Try to make each petal the same size as the first and second fold twists.

Straighten out the five-fold twists so they form the petals of a flower. You're done with the petals.

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Making and Attaching the Stem

Here is how to make and attach the stem and the center of the flower. Since the flower is yellow, we are adding a green stem but you can make this whatever color you wish. Let's begin:

Inflate the second, green balloon and leave a half-inch of inflated balloon at the end.

Taking the nozzle end of the green balloon, make a small basic twist, about an inch in length. Join this basic twist to the center of the flower petals. To do this, stretch the basic twist away from the rest of the balloon (stem), and insert the flower so the petals reside between the nozzle twist and the rest of the balloon.

At this point, you have three options for the center of the balloon flower:

Option 1: Leave the basic twist as is.When you join the stem to the petals of the flower, you'll have a nozzle showing in the middle of the flower. This is fine, but it's probably the least finished of the options. As a plus, this is the fastest method to make a flower balloon if you're pressed for time or have lots of people waiting in line.

Option 2: Finish the basic twist after joining the stem to the flower. Join the stem to the flower and then take hold of the nozzle and wrap it around the flower in between the petals. Doing this, you'll have a flower center that doesn't show the nozzle.

Option 3: Make a tulip twist in the flower's center.Before joining the basic twist of the stem to the flower, make a tulip twist in the nozzle end. Attach the tulip twist to the flower petals as you did in Option 1.

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The Completed Balloon Flower

The final basic balloon flower is now attached to the stem. If you like, you can add leaves by twisting the stem with a couple of fold twists as you would for a basic sword balloon. In this case, you're essentially making the handguard for the sword, but you are actually forming leaves. The technique to quickly make a handguard for a sword applies here to making the leaves.